Breeze Airways is strengthening its management team with the hiring of Tom Doxey as President and Natalie Atwood as Chief People Officer.
Doxey is an experienced airline executive who will join Breeze on June 8. He will report directly to Breeze Founder and CEO David Neeleman.
Speaking about the appointments, Neeleman said :
“They are joining the airline at a pivotal time in our young company’s history as we approach our one-year anniversary, welcome the Airbus A220 and continue our rapid expansion across the US, including transcontinental flights.”
Critical time for Breeze and the new president
The new president arrives at an exciting and critical time for Breeze. In April, the airline took delivery of its third Airbus A220-300 and announced the launch of ten new routes.
Breeze now has three Airbus A220-300s and another 77 on order. Photo: Breeze.
Four will be A220 nonstop flights from Westchester County Airport (HPN) to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Charleston. The A220 will also fly the existing route from Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport (BDL) to Las Vegas.
Before joining Breeze, Doxey was senior vice-president of technical operations at United Airlines. He managed United’s global technical functions and a team of more than 13,000 employees.
This covered line and base maintenance, aircraft reliability and regulatory compliance, engineering, engines and components and the supply chain.
That extensive technical and maintenance experience will serve Breeze well with 77 Airbus A220-300s still on order. According to ch-aviation.com, it also has ten Embraer ERJ 190-100AR and three ERJ 190-200AR in its fleet.
Prior to his time at United, Doxey was vice president of fleet and corporate finance at low-cost carrier Allegiant Air. His first role in aviation was in the finance department at US Airways.
Natalie Atwood joins Breeze from Salt Lake City company HeathEquity, a health services operation with more than 500,000 members. Her role there was as executive vice president of people, and previous to that, she worked with American Express in workforce management and corporate training.
Breeze has positioned itself as a low fare carrier, offering “new, nice and nonstop flights” between secondary airports. The airline’s fare structure has three levels, Nice, Nicer and Nicest.
Neeleman is a long-time aviation entrepreneur and founder of five airlines, including JetBlue, WestJet and Brazil’s Azul, an early adopter of the Airbus A220-300.
Where is Breeze heading?
Breeze has announced new nonstop A220 routes from Westchester, to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. Map: Breeze Airways.
His vision for Breeze is to bypass hubs with direct flights, which was highlighted in the April launch of new routes. The new services from Westchester Airport will save local-area residents the journey into New York City and offer daily nonstop flights to the popular west coast cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
Breeze is adding nonstop routes from Westchester to Charleston, Norfolk, Jacksonville, and Savannah for those wanting to head south. Perhaps a little counterintuitively, it’s adding a one-stop same plane flight to New Orleans.
Neeleman says the new A220s are ideal for these longer routes, with 36 first class,10 extra legroom and 80 standard seats, adding “there’s no faster or more comfortable way to get from Westchester to the west coast.”
Westchester Airport is around 30 miles (48 kilometers) from midtown New York City. It is also used by commuter airlines, including American Eagle, Delta Connection and United Express, and JetBlue.
By offering a choice between a commuter flight to a hub to connect to the west coast or a direct flight on a brand new A220 Breeze is really differentiating itself.
Will it be a success?
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